Lesson 7:

Editing with Camera Raw

Editing has a fundamental role to play
before finalising or delivering any photo.
Editing is divided into 3 parts:
1. Cropping , trimming and balancing
2. Cleaning and exposing
3. Colour Grading

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 What Is Adobe Camera Raw?
If you want to edit and enhance photographs quickly in
Photoshop, you need to know how to use Camera Raw. At first
glance, the Camera Raw interface in Photoshop seems a little
scary. When you open it, it looks like there are lots of sliders to
drag and buttons to press.
However, Camera Raw is actually pretty straightforward to use.
In this series of free Camera Raw tutorials, I’ll show you how to
open images and edit them using this brilliant tool.
Let’s start with an explanation of what Adobe Camera Raw is
and what Raw files are.

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 What Are Raw Images?
Raw files are images created in a digital camera. They hold the unprocessed
data taken from the camera’s image sensor. Raw files are much larger in
size than JPEG files. They’re also much more useful because they contain all
of the original image data.
The fantastic thing about raw files is that you can recover image details
from them that you would not be able to recover from a JPEG file.
This means that we can find “unseen” information in the file.

For example, you might have a photograph that looks overexposed with a
blown-out sky as seen above on the left hand side.
With just a few edits using the sliders in the Camera Raw interface, I
recovered a previously unseen, beautiful blue sky with fluffy clouds.

In the example above, on the left, the photograph is underexposed with

missing details in the shadows.
With just a few clicks, we can bring back those details and colours that
were hidden.
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 What Is The Difference Between Raw
and JPEG files?
As stated previously, raw files contain the unprocessed, original information
straight from the camera sensor. JPEG files are automatically processed in
the camera. The amount of processing that takes place varies depending on
the camera settings.
Because JPEG files have been enhanced and compressed, when you bring
these images into Camera Raw, you are editing pixels that have already been
processed. This means you don’t have as much control and ability to find
those hidden details, because some of that data has been “thrown away” in
the processing.
You can still edit JPEG and TIFF files very effectively with the Camera Raw
filter though and it is well worthwhile to do your editing this way.
To shoot Camera Raw images, set your camera to save files in its own Camera
Raw file format. Many cameras allow you to shoot Camera Raw and JPEG at
the same time. The camera produces image files for every shot you take.

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 Histogram and RGB levels

A histogram is a representation of the number of pixels at

each luminance value in an image. A histogram that has
non-zero values for each luminance value indicates an
image that takes advantage of the full tonal scale. One that
doesn’t use the full tonal range corresponds to a dull image
that lacks contrast. A histogram with a spike at the left side
indicates shadow clipping; a histogram with a spike on the
right side indicates highlight clipping.

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Clipping occurs when the color values of a pixel are higher than the highest value or
lower than the lowest value that can be represented in the image. Overly bright
values are clipped to output white, and overly dark values are clipped to output
black. The result is a loss of image detail.
You can view Highlight and Shadow clipping indicators in the upper corners of the
histogram. This is to check areas in your photo that are either too light or dark, as
you make edits. If the upper-left clipping indicator is illuminated (the clipping
indicator is white), it implies that shadows are clipped in your photo. Click the
illuminated indicator to view the shadows in your photo. The shadows are displayed
as a blue overlay mask. If the upper-right clipping indicator is illuminated (the
clipping indicator is white), it implies that highlights are clipped in your photo. Click
the illuminated indicator to view the highlights in your photo. The highlights are
displayed as a red overlay mask.

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 White balance controls

A digital camera records the white balance at

the time of exposure as a metadata entry. The
Camera Raw plug-in reads this value and
makes it the initial setting when you open the
file in the Camera Raw dialog box. This setting
usually yields the correct color temperature, or
nearly so. You can adjust the white balance if it
is not right. As Shot
Uses the camera’s white
The White Balance drop-down menu in balance settings, if they are
the Basic panel has three main controls for available.
correcting a color cast: Auto
White Balance Calculates the white balance
Camera Raw applies the white balance setting based on the image data.
and changes the Temperature and Tint Camera raw and DNG files also
properties in the Basic tab accordingly. Use have the following white
these controls to fine-tune the color balance. balance settings: Daylight,
Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten,
Fluorescent, and Flash
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Temperature
Sets the white balance to a custom color temperature.
Decrease Temperature to correct a photo taken with a
lower color temperature of light; the Camera Raw plug-in
makes the image colors bluer to compensate for the
lower color temperature (yellowish) of the ambient light.
Conversely, increase Temperature to correct a photo
taken with a higher color temperature of light; the image
colors become warmer (yellowish) to compensate for the
higher color temperature (bluish) of the ambient light.

Tint
Sets the white balance to compensate for a green or
magenta tint. Decrease Tint to add green to the image;
increase Tint to add magenta.

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Adjust tone
When you click Auto in the top of the Edit panel, Camera Raw analyzes the
image and makes automatic adjustments to the tone controls.

PV referred to in the brackets below is Process Version.

Exposure
Adjusts the overall image brightness. Adjust the slider until the photo looks
good and the image is the desired brightness. Exposure values are in
increments equivalent to aperture values (f-stops) on a camera. An
adjustment of +1.00 is similar to opening the aperture 1 stop. Similarly, an
adjustment of -1.00 is like closing the aperture 1 stop.
Contrast
Increases or decreases image contrast, mainly affecting midtones. When you
increase contrast, the middle-to-dark image areas become darker, and the
middle-to-light image areas become lighter. The image tones are inversely
affected as you decrease contrast.
Highlights
Adjusts bright image areas. Drag to the left to darken highlights and recover
“blown out” highlight details. Drag to the right to brighten highlights while
minimizing clipping.
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Shadows
Adjusts dark image areas. Drag to the left to darken shadows while
minimizing clipping. Drag to the right to brighten shadows and recover
shadow details.
Whites
Adjusts white clipping. Drag to the left to reduce clipping in highlights.
Drag to the right to increase highlight clipping. (Increased clipping may
be desirable for specular highlights, such as metallic surfaces.)
Blacks
Adjusts black clipping. Drag to the left to increase black clipping (map
more shadows to pure black). Drag to the right to reduce shadow
clipping.
Blacks
Specifies which image values map to black. Moving the slider to the
right increases the areas that become black, sometimes creating the
impression of increased image contrast. The greatest effect is in the
shadows, with much less change in the midtones and highlights.

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Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation controls

You can change the color saturation of all colors by adjusting

the Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation controls in the Basic panel. (To adjust
saturation for a specific range of colors, use the controls in the Color
Mixer panel.)
Clarity
Adds depth to an image by increasing local contrast, with greatest effect
on the midtones. This setting is like a large-radius unsharp mask. When
using this setting, it is best to zoom in to 100% or greater. To maximize the
effect, increase the setting until you see halos near the edge details of the
image and then reduce the setting slightly.
Vibrance
Adjusts the saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full
saturation. This setting changes the saturation of all lower-saturated colors
with less effect on the higher-saturated colors. Vibrance also prevents skin
tones from becoming oversaturated.
Saturation
Adjusts the saturation of all image colors equally from -100 (monochrome)
to +100 (double the saturation).
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Dehaze
Adobe Camera Raw allows you to easily decrease or
increase the amount of haze or fog in a photograph.
Click in the Adjustment panel on the right to view
the Basic panel and adjust the Dehaze slider control.
Apply Dehaze in photographs.
Amount Controls the amount of haze in a
photograph. Drag to the right to remove haze; drag
to the left to add haze.
Radial Filter
Radial filters in Adobe Camera Raw direct attention
to specific portions of the image.
Note: Dehaze is now available as a local adjustment.
While working with the Radial Filter, Graduated
Filter, or the Adjustment Brush, adjust the Dehaze
slider control..

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 Other Edit Panel
• Curve Fine-tune the tonal scale using curves. Select among Parametric
Curve, Point Curve, Red Channel, Green channel, and Blue Channel
• Detail Adjust Sharpening, Noise Reduction, and Color Noise Reduction
using the sliders
• Color Mixer Select between HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance)
and Color to adjust different hues in your image
• Color Grading Precisely adjust hues in Shadows, Midtones,
and Highlights using the color wheels. You can also adjust
the Blending and Balance of these hues
• Optics Remove chromatic aberration or Distortion and Vignette. You can
also use Defringe to sample purple or green hues in your image and
correct them.
• Geometry Adjust different types of perspective and level corrections.
Select Constrain crop to quickly remove the white border after
applying Geometry adjustments

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• Effects Add Grain or a vignette using the sliders
• Calibration Select the Process Version from the Process drop-down menu
and adjust the sliders for Shadows, Red Primary, Green Primary, and Blue
Primary
• Spot Removal
• Heal or clone specific areas of your image.
• Adjustment Brush
• Make edits to specific areas of your image using the Brush tool.
• Graduated Filter
• Makes a selection using parallel lines. Adjust various controls based on the
selected area.
• Radial Filter
• Makes a selection using an ellipse. Adjust various controls based on the
selected areas.

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• Red Eye
• Easily remove red eye or pet eye in images.
Adjust Pupil Size or Darken.
• Snapshot
• Create and save different edited versions of your
image.
• Presets
• Access and browse through Premium presets for
Portraits for different skin tones, Cinematic, Travel,
Vintage, and more. You can also find your User
Presets here. Simply hover over a preset to preview
and click to apply it.

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 Sources

• The Beginner's Guide to Pinhole Photography……………………………

……………………………Jim Shull
• Commercial Photography Handbook - Techniques for Professional Digital
Photographers…Kirk Tuck
• Digital Photography - Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks, Fourth Edition
• Digital Photography Lighting For Dummies……………. Dirk Fletcher
• Jeff Smith's Senior Portrait Photography Handbook - A Guide for
Professional Digital Photographers

• Canon Official Website resources

• Nikon Official Website resources
• Dawn M Wayand

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